Stalwart Strategies is pleased to offer you an easy-to-navigate brief of the week’s activity inside state government, noteworthy items for the upcoming week, and other important news.
News In State Government
Governor:
Governor Abbott Appoints Four to Board of the Texas Department Of Motor Vehicle, Garza to Family Practice Residency Advisory Committee: To read more about these and other gubernatorial-appointments this week click here.
Lieutenant Governor:
Lieutenant Governor Patrick: Statement on Unanimous Passage of Senate Bill 12: “SB 12 takes a principled conservative approach to pension reform and is the right thing to do for our retired teachers.” Click here to read the full statement.
Lt. Governor Patrick: Statement on the Unanimous Passage of CSSB 20: “CSSB 20 reaffirms our determination to stop the scourge of human trafficking and strengthen our efforts to bring these criminals to justice.” Click here to read the full statement.
Attorney General:
AG Paxton Files Lawsuit Against Intercontinental Terminals Company for Violations of the Texas Clean Air Act: Acting on behalf of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed an environmental lawsuit against Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) seeking injunctive relief and civil penalties in connection with a fire at ITC’s Deer Park petrochemical storage site. Click here to read the full news article.
Comptroller:
Fiscal Notes: Texas Cybersecurity — Protecting Data Systems: In the March edition of Fiscal Notes, released today, the Comptroller’s office examines the rapidly growing field of cybersecurity, an industry spurred by a new breed of criminal. Click here to read the full news release.
Railroad Comission:
RRC Commissioners Assess More Than $520,000 in Penalties: The Railroad Commission of Texas assessed $520,394 in fines involving 321 enforcement dockets against operators and businesses at the Commissioners’ conference this week. Click here for details.
Environmental Quality:
Acting on Behalf of the TCEQ, Attorney General Amends Petition Against ITC, LLC: On behalf of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Attorney General Wednesday filed an Amended Original Petition and Application for Injunctive Relief in the District Court of Travis County against Intercontinental Terminals Company, LLC in Deer Park, to include violations of the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act and chapter 26 of the Texas Water Code. Click here to read the full news release.
Health and Human Services:
Texas Decreases Use of Antipsychotics in Nursing Homes: Texas nursing facilities have dramatically reduced the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications for nursing facility residents with dementia, according to a recent report that ranks states on this key measure of long-term care quality. Click here to read the full news release.
Texas Secures Major Funding for Doctors, Hospitals: The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has secured $84 million to help fund physician resident positions at public teaching hospitals in Texas. Click here to read the full news release.
Other News
State News:
Texas House Approves 2020-21 Budget Plan: In Dennis Bonnen’s first major test as speaker of the Texas House, the chamber he oversees resoundingly passed a $251 billion budget Wednesday after a long but largely civil debate — a departure from the dramatics that have typically defined such an affair. Click here to read the full KUT article.
Texas Needs Another 10,000 Miles of Gas, Oil Pipelines by 2050: Texas will need to add more than 10,000 miles of new, currently unplanned, pipeline infrastructure projects in the next 30-plus years to achieve its full potential for growth of oil and gas production, a new study finds. Click here to read the full S&P Global article.
Abbott Finally Appoints SOAH Chief: Kristofer Monson tapped as the state’s new Chief Administrative Law Judge. Click here to read the full Austin Chronicle article.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Teases Multiple Special Sessions Unless Texas Enacts ‘Substantial’ Tax Relief: Two of the state’s top leaders believe lawmakers can fulfill their promises this year without working overtime, pushing back on speculation that a special session might be needed to enact serious property tax relief. Click here to read the full Dallas Morning News article.
Deer Park Fire a ‘Blemish’ for the Petrochemical Industry’s Image: The Deer Park petrochemical blaze prompted school closures, shelter-in-place orders, spikes in benzene levels and ship channel closures. It also cast a shadow over a petrochemical sector that has struggled to counter negative stereotypes that present the industry as dirty and dangerous. Click here to read the full Houston Chronicle article.
Houston Ship Channel Closure Could Cost $1 Billion: The closure of a portion of the Houston Ship Channel in the aftermath of the days-long Deer Park chemical fire could cost the petroleum and petrochemical sectors an estimated $1 billion in direct and indirect costs and lost revenues, experts said. Click here to read the full Houston Chronicle article.
Texas Manufacturers Report Continued Growth but Slowing Demand: Texas factories continued turning out more products in March even as some managers worried about slowing sales and the scarcity of workers, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ monthly survey of manufacturers. Click here to read San Antonio Express News article.
Nuclear Power Woes Extend to Texas: By the standards of the U.S. nuclear energy industry, Texas’s two nuclear plants are fairly new. Neither one is more than three decades old, while many nuclear sites across the country are nearing the five-decade mark. Click here to read the full Houston Chronicle article.
Under Mindy Brashears’ Leadership, USDA Will Let Swine Slaughter Facilities Go Hog Wild: On March 15, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Mindy Brashears, a former food scientist at Texas Tech University who was appointed by Trump as second-in-command at USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in January, delivered good news to the pork industry. Click here to read the full Texas Observer article.
Texas Urges Federal Action for a Fair Share of Transportation Funding: Texas receives significantly less than any other state compared to what it pays into the federal Highway Trust Fund. Click here to read the full news release from TXDOT.
Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Craig Enoch: High-Speed Rail has Legal Authority to Keep Moving Forward: “Eminent domain has been long-recognized as essential to a community’s well-being, enabling progress and providing an orderly process for determining and paying private landowners a reasonable price for land use.” Click here to read the full opinion article by Justice Enoch as published by The Times.
National News:
Mueller Finds No Trump-Russia Conspiracy, but Stops Short of Exonerating President on Obstruction: The investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III found no evidence that President Trump or any of his aides coordinated with the Russian government’s 2016 election interference, according to a summary of the special counsel’s key findings made public on Sunday by Attorney General William P. Barr. Click here to read the full NYT article and the summary.
DeVos Launches Investigation into College Admissions Scandal: The Education Department has opened investigations into eight universities tied to the sweeping college admissions and bribery scandal unveiled by federal prosecutors earlier this month, according to individuals familiar with the investigation. Click here to read the full Politico article.
Fed’s Charles Evans Says US Economy is Slowing but Downplays Recession: Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans says the U.S. economy has slowed, but he downplayed chances of a recession. Click here to read the full CNBC article.
‘Clearly an End-Run’: Federal Judge Rejects Trump’s Health Care Plan to go Around ACA: A federal judge in Washington ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration’s push to make health insurance plans available outside the Affordable Care Act that avoid the requirements of the health care law was illegal, calling the efforts “clearly an end-run around the ACA.” Click here to read the full Washington Post article.
